Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling

Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling

A vital Aboriginal perspective on colonial storytelling Indigenous lawyer and writer Larissa Behrendt has long been fascinated by the story of Eliza Fraser, who was purportedly captured by the local Butchulla people after she was shipwrecked on their island off the Queensland coast in 1836. In this deeply personal book, Behrendt uses Eliza's tale as a starting point to interrogate how Aboriginal people - and indigenous people of other countries - have been portrayed in their colonisers' stories. Exploring works as diverse as Robinson Crusoe and Coonardoo, Behrendt looks at the ideas embedded in these accounts, such as the supposed promiscuity of Aboriginal women, the fixation on cannibalism, and the myth of the noble savage. Ultimately, Finding Eliza shows how these stories not only reflect the values of their storytellers but also reinforce those values - which in Australia led to the dispossession of Aboriginal people and the enforcement of unjust laws against them.

Author description

Authors Bio, not available

Stock Information

General Fields

ISBN : 9780702253904

Publisher : University of Queensland Press

Imprint : University of Queensland Press

Publication date : September 2015

Dimensions : 197mm X 133mm X 13mm

Availability date : February 2016

Product Type : books

Special Fields

Bind : Paperback

Edition : 216

Language : English

Pages : 224

Illustrations : black & white illustrations

Author : Larissa Behrendt

"Please please, read to your children. Read in a lively way. Read with love not duty"